Indigo Plateau
The Indigo Plateau is the location of the Pokemon League! This will be a little different from the Pokemon League Gyms that came beforehand. Here, you must face the four toughest Pokemon Trainers in all of Kanto: The Elite Four. Not only that, but all four must be battled back to back. You will be able to heal your team with any items between matches, but the game cannot be saved, and you can’t return to the Pokemon Center. Stock up on Revives, Hyper Potions from a different Poke Mart (Max Potions if your Pokemon are beyond 200 HP), Full Restores, and Full Heals. If your team happens to get knocked out, your party will keep their experience and levels, but some cash will be lost as a penalty.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Ultra Ball | 1200 |
| Great Ball | 600 |
| Full Restore | 3000 |
| Max Potion | 2500 |
| Full Heal | 600 |
| Max Repel | 700 |
Lorelei
Lorelei is the first member of the Elite Four. She specializes in water and ice-type Pokemon. Most of her team has high specials and/or defense stats, so you might be in for a lengthy battle if your team isn’t strong enough.
When fighting Dewgong, Cloyster, and Slowbro, it’s best to stick with electric-type attacks since they have higher defenses than specials. However, Dewgong has a higher special and can put itself to sleep with Rest, fully restoring its HP. It might be best to use fighting-type attacks against Dewgong to hit hard and fast.
Jynx has a higher special and no water-type. It’s best to go with rock or bug-type attacks to inflict massive damage. If you don’t have either, stick with fire-type attacks.
Lapras is well balanced, and Lorelei’s best Pokemon. Try to take it out as quickly as possible with fighting or electric-type attacks. Hydro Pump and Blizzard are the strongest water and ice-type attacks in the game. That’s why it’s important to eliminate Lapras before things get bad. You don’t want your Pokemon immobilized by confusion, either.
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dewgong | 54 | Water/Ice | BubbleBeam, Aurora Beam, Rest, Take Down |
| Cloyster | 53 | Water/Ice | Supersonic, Clamp, Ice Beam, Spike Cannon |
| Slowbro | 54 | Water/Psychic | Surf, Psychic, Withdraw, Amnesia |
| Jynx | 54 | Ice/Psychic | DoubleSlap, Ice Punch, Lovely Kiss, Thrash |
| Lapras | 56 | Water/Ice | Body Slam, Confuse Ray, Hydro Pump, Blizzard |
Bruno
Bruno is the second member of the Elite Four. He specializes in rock and fighting-type Pokemon. The rock-types are more defensive than offensive, but the fighting types will come at you with speed and power.
Onix shouldn’t pose a threat. Remember, they were at the very first Pokemon Gym in Pewter City! Rock/Ground-type Pokemon are 4x weak to water and grass-type attacks, and these Onix have incredibly low specials. A single grass or water-type attack from a trained Pokemon will take them out with little effort.
When it comes to the three fighting-type Pokemon, your best bet is to use either psychic or ghost-type Pokemon. If you have a ghost-type Pokemon, they will be immune to all fighting and normal-type attacks. The three ghost Pokemon in the game can also learn psychic-type attacks, which are super effective against fighting-types. Alternatively, you can use a psychic-type Pokemon with psychic-type attacks to get a little boost in power at the cost of immunity. Hopefully their speed is greater than Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Machamp.
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onix | 53 | Rock/Ground | Rock Throw, Dig, Slam, Screech |
| Hitmonchan | 55 | Fighting | Ice Punch, Fire Punch, ThunderPunch, DoubleTeam |
| Hitmonlee | 55 | Fighting | Double Kick, DoubleTeam, Hi Jump Kick, Mega Kick |
| Onix | 56 | Rock/Ground | Rock Slide, Screech, Earthquake, Slam |
| Machamp | 58 | Fighting | Leer, Strength, Karate Chop, Submission |
Agatha
Agatha is the third member of the Elite Four. She specializes in ghost and poison-type Pokemon. Just like with Koga (the poison-type gym leader), Agatha will also rely on status conditions to get the upper hand. Your team might get confused, put to sleep, or even paralyzed.
The three ghost-type Pokemon are also half-poison, making them weak to ground, psychic, and other ghost-type attacks. Since they have incredibly high specials, it’s best to hit them with physical elements such as ground and ghost. However, there’s only one true ghost-type attack in the entire game: Lick. The other ghost attack, Night Shade, will always remove HP equal to the user’s level.
Golbat is half flying and half poison, making it weak to rock, psychic, electric, and ice. Try to take it out quickly or its Toxic attack will doom your Pokemon.
When it comes to the poison snake Arbok, it’s weak to psychic, ground, and bug-type attacks. Its Glare attack will paralyze your Pokemon, reducing its speed, then attack with wrap. In generation one, wrap will completely immobilize your Pokemon if they are slower than the opponent using wrap. Not only can this monster do that annoying paralyze wrap, but it can also reduce your defenses with Screech and Acid. Since Poison is a physical element, reducing your defense will cause poison-type attacks to deal even more damage!
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gengar | 56 | Ghost/Poison | Confuse Ray, Lick, Substitute, Mega Drain |
| Golbat | 56 | Poison/Flying | Supersonic, Leech Life, Wing Attack, Toxic |
| Haunter | 55 | Ghost/Poison | Confuse Ray, Lick, Hypnosis, Dream Eater |
| Arbok | 58 | Poison | Wrap, Glare, Screech, Acid |
| Gengar | 60 | Ghost/Poison | Confuse Ray, Psychic, Hypnosis, Dream Eater |
Lance
Lance is the fourth member of the Elite Four. He specializes in dragon Pokemon, but not necessarily the dragon-type. All his Pokemon have been classified as dragon Pokemon, but only three of the five are of the dragon-type. Three of the five are also of the flying-type. Furthemore, all five Pokemon know Hyper Beam. This is the second strongest attack in the game! Once a Pokemon uses this attack, they will forfeit their next turn to recharge. The only exception is if they knock out a Pokemon with their Hyper Beam attack – this was changed in later games.
Although all of these Pokemon are well-rounded, they will have a weaker defense than special. Physical attacks might be better than special attacks if your team’s levels are too low. If you want to target these Pokemon’s type weaknesses, dragon-type and flying-type Pokemon are weak to ice-type attacks. Use these and you’ll be sure to deal massive damage. However, do not attempt to use ice on Gyarados since it’s half water-type. Use electric-type attacks to deal 4x damage to Gyarados.
There is only a single dragon-type attack in the entire game, Dragon Rage. This attack will always deal 40 HP damage no matter what. Honestly, the move isn’t worth buying from the Celadon City Game Corner and teaching to your team. Ice Beam and Blizzard will be the keys to victory.
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gyarados | 58 | Water/Flying | Hydro Pump, Dragon Rage, Leer, Hyper Beam |
| Dragonair | 56 | Dragon | Thunderbolt, Slam, ThunderWave, Hyper Beam |
| Dragonair | 56 | Dragon | Wrap, BubbleBeam, Ice Beam, Hyper Beam |
| Aerodactyl | 60 | Rock/Flying | Wing Attack, Fly, Swift, Hyper Beam |
| Dragonite | 62 | Dragon/Flying | Blizzard, Fire Blast, Thunder, Hyper Beam |
Defeating the Elite Four was supposed to make you Pokemon League Champion. However, someone beat you to it just a short time ago. Heal your team before going into the next room, as you won’t have a chance to do so later. When you’re ready, walk into the next room to meet the Pokemon League Champion.
Champion
This is it, the final battle of the game! Your Rival has returned and is stronger than ever. Try to use the same strategy from Route 22 to get the upper hand. Target his party’s type weaknesses if your Pokemon’s levels are high enough. Don’t forget about healing items either!
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandslash | 61 | Ground | Earthquake, Slash, Fury Swipes, Poison Sting |
| Alakazam | 59 | Psychic | Psybeam, Recover, Psychic, Kinesis |
| Exeggcute | 61 | Grass/Psychic | Leech Seed, Stomp, Hypnosis, Barrage |
| Magneton | 63 | Electric | Thunderbolt, ThunderWave, Screech, Swift |
| Ninetales | 61 | Fire | Fire Spin, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Confuse Ray |
| Vaporeon | 65 | Water | Quick Attack, Aurora Beam, Mist, Hydro Pump |
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandslash | 61 | Ground | Earthquake, Slash, Fury Swipes, Poison Sting |
| Alakazam | 59 | Psychic | Psybeam, Recover, Psychic, Kinesis |
| Exeggcute | 61 | Grass/Psychic | Leech Seed, Stomp, Hypnosis, Barrage |
| Ninetales | 61 | Fire | Fire Spin, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Confuse Ray |
| Cloyster | 61 | Water/Ice | Ice Beam, Spike Cannon, Clamp, Aurora Beam |
| Jolteon | 87 | Electric | Pin Missile, Quick Attack, Thunder, Thunderbolt |
| Pokemon | Level | Type | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandslash | 61 | Ground | Earthquake, Slash, Fury Swipes, Poison Sting |
| Alakazam | 59 | Psychic | Psybeam, Recover, Psychic, Kinesis |
| Exeggcute | 61 | Grass/Psychic | Leech Seed, Stomp, Hypnosis, Barrage |
| Cloyster | 61 | Water/Ice | Ice Beam, Spike Cannon, Clamp, Aurora Beam |
| Magneton | 63 | Electric | Thunderbolt, ThunderWave, Screech, Swift |
| Flareon | 87 | Fire | Quick Attack, Smog, Fire Spin, Flamethrower |
After defeating your Rival, your party will be registered in the Pokemon League Hall of Fame. Wait for the credits to roll so the game can save. When you load the game back up, you will be at your home in Pallet Town.
Now that you’re the Pokemon League Champion, the only thing to do is capture all 151 Pokemon and investigate the final dungeon in Kanto. The Pokemon League and your Rival can be re-challenged as many times as you like, but their teams will not change.